These are experimental Linux 2.2 and 2.4 framebuffer drivers for the Asiliant 69030 graphics chip. This chip was previously available from Intel, and is descended from a Chips and Technologies part. The 2.2 driver is thus based on the Linux chipsfb.c driver, which supports the 65555 part in certain Apple Powerbooks. The 2.4 driver is also based on work by Jordan Crouse.

This driver is experimental, but is intended as a basis to merge into the mainstream kernel. Though the driver should work on the 69000, I currently have no 69000 hardware to test it on. Reports of using a panel and CRT simultaneously on 69000 are very interesting.

The driver currently only works in systems where the VGA bios has not initialised the card. In most cases this means that the driver does not work on i386 architecture systems. I believe the problem is related to initialisation order of clocks within the device.

The driver supports the use of flat panel displays and CRTs. The driver assumes that if a flat panel exists, it has been set up correctly by the BIOS. There is currently no way for users to set panel parameters. On 69000 the panel and the CRT have the same video timings, and on 69030 they are independent.

The driver supports the use of flat panel displays and CRTs. The driver assumes that if a flat panel exists, it has been set up correctly by the BIOS. There is currently no way for users to set panel parameters. On 69000 the panel and the CRT have the same video timings, and on 69030 they are independent.

The driver supports several modes of operation, controlled by the kernel command line. These modes are:

nopanel – display on CRT only.

nocrt – display on panel only.

mirror – panel and CRT display the same image.

split13 – create two independent framebuffer devices. Assign 1MB of video ram to
the first, which displays on the panel, and 3MB to the second on the CRT.

split22 – create two independent framebuffer devices. Assign 2MB of video ram to
the first, which displays on the panel, and 2MB to the second on the CRT.